Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 45:16-17
Ps 45:16-17
16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers; you will make them princes throughout the land. 17 I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.
3 John 2-4
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
As parents, we all want to leave some kind of legacy through our children. It may be that they follow us in a family business or follow us in our profession or they may excel in the same sport we played in our younger years but the idea is the same. We feel that we continue to live through the lives of our children and our grandchildren. This was the promise of God to David as king of Israel.
For our children to be successful, it takes effort and training on the part of parents. They will not become great athletes without training or great musicians without practice or star students without study. So we make sure they don’t miss practice, we drive them all over the country to play their sport, we help them study or do whatever else it takes to make sure they excel and are successful in their endeavors. We revel as they follow in our steps.
However, the greatest legacy we can leave is to have our children grow up to be Christians and serve the Lord faithfully. There is no greater joy than to know that our children (and theirs) continue to walk in the truth. This too takes effort. It will not happen if we do not train them, discipline them, teach them (and help them study and learn to think for themselves) and encourage them along the way. Our children’s greatest cheerleaders in life should be their parents.
When we have done this, we have laid up treasures in heaven. We have rescued our children from hell and we have fulfilled our greatest duty to God as parents of the wonderful children he has put into our lives and in our trust.
O Lord God, my heavenly Father, you have trained me in your word, lead me with your Spirit and given your Son to redeem me from my terrible sin. Thank you for loving me when I don’t deserve to be loved. Help me now as a parent and as a grandparent to lead those you have put in my life to follow you. Thank you God for giving me parents who loved you most of all and loved me, taught, trained and encouraged me to live for you. Even though the training was not always pleasant, I am grateful for having receive it. I humbly pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
